Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Chicken Stock

It seems Weight Watchers has two thoughts on this, either 0 PointsPlus or 1 point per cup. I'm going with 0 because it's just too good for you. I have a few issues with the way they do things. A diet Coke is 0 and a healthy fat avocado is 8 POINTS?? Really? There have been studies that show that fake sugar stimulates your appetite and reduces your good bacteria by 50%-ugh. I do a modified version. They say all fruits and veggies are "free" and I include avocados in that list. I don't do low fat and I do use coconut oil. It's all good and it still works :-)

So, onto the recipe!

I have a HUGE stockpot--16-20 quarts maybe? I bought it at Wal-Mart and it doesn't say how big it is because it was cheap but I love it anyway.

3 (5 lb-ish) whole chickens, or whatever inexpensive parts you like. If you can, at least buy chicken that didn't have antibiotics. I bought 2 whole chickens and 5 lbs of leg quarters.
3 large onions, washed, root cut off, unpeeled and quartered
6 carrots, washed, unpeeled and halved
4 stalks celery with leaves, washed and cut into thirds
4 parsnips, washed, unpeeled and cut in half
20 sprigs of fresh parsley
15 sprigs of fresh thyme
20 sprigs of fresh dill
1 head of garlic, root cut off, unpeeled and cut in half crosswise
2 T kosher salt
2 t whole black peppercorns

If you have more carrots, or less celery stalks, or bought a box of fresh thyme that has double that amount, don't worry about it--it all turns out just fine!

Place the chickens, veggies, herbs, etc in the pot. Add 7 quarts of water and bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Set the timer for 1.5 hours. Take out 2 chickens or 2/3 of the chicken parts you put in the pot and take all the meat off, return carcasses to pot and set timer for another 2.5 hours. Let the chicken meat you just pulled off cool and put in whatever size bags you'd like and freeze. I had two freezer bags with about a pound of chicken each. One bag I'll use in chicken stew. The other...don't know yet.

The goal is to simmer for 4 hours total. Strain the entire contents of the pot through a fine mesh strainer (mine looks like a big bowl covered in stainless mesh) and discard all the solids. You may be tempted to keep the meat but I can tell you from experience--there is NO flavor left, it's all in the stock. Fill your containers however you'd like. I use quart glass canning jars and a funnel to pour the stock in. Freeze, make sure there is about an inch of headroom in the jar as the stock expands a bit when frozen. Before you use it skim off the fat.

This recipe makes about 7 quarts (28 cups) of stock or GOLD as I like to call it. It is delicious and is NOTHING like the water they call stock at the grocery stores!

Adapted from an Ina Garten recipe.


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